Comments
These are the people you wish you had known. This fifth volume of astonishing people has more amazing inventors: the teens who came up with the Frisbee, and the snowboard. The physicists who figured out how to do digital photography “in not more than an hour” — and why they needed to invent it.
The pioneers in computers, including the inventor of the laptop, and the inventor of ebooks. The creators of some of the best TV you’ve ever seen.
Accomplished women such as the first computer programmer, the secretary who “saved” The Diary of Anne Frank, the first female TV director. The physicist who figured out how to make blue and ultraviolet LEDs, which enabled new technologies and industries. The researcher who “brought about a revolution in biological and medical research,” winning her the Nobel Prize.
Brilliant writers, cartoonists, and musicians. The teachers and rocket scientists who worked to show us new things. The doctor who “prevented more cancer deaths than any person who’s ever lived,” and the doctor who figured out organ transplants, and the one who figured out in vitro fertilization.
The mainstream media tend to worship celebrities and sports figures, but the real heroes in life are often anonymous to the public. Each of the stories will make you realize the cool people you have missed in your midst. These are the people you will wish you had known.
+ + +
The Honorary Unsubscribe is a recurring feature in "This is True" — one of the first Internet-based newsletters, created by Randy Cassingham in early 1994. TRUE's mission is to provoke thought through social commentary. But if readers aren't entertained by the stories, they won't read very many. Thus its vehicle: weird-but-true news from legitimate news sources from around the world. The result spans the gamut of the crazy things we humans think we can get away with: jaw-dropping examples of the human thought process, and the realization that we can do better — a LOT better!
The Honorary Unsubscribe is the "balance" to those weird stories of people doing dumb things. The H.U. is, in fact, the opposite: stories of the absolutely coolest people you've ever heard about; the ones who DO live a lot better. This is the first volume collecting those write-ups into book form for the first time.
